Sunday, March 7, 2010

Pies are a popular dessert at our house. Although I'm not a huge fan, my 11-year old loves them. So she's become the resident expert. I've taught her the a-ha moments I had at Le Cordon Bleu regarding pastry: including fraisage. (See video below.) Although I'd read about fraisage, I didn't know exactly what it was until someone showed me. Some things need to be shown, and this was one of them. By not overworking the dough, it remains tender.

Some like the compote aspect of this tart; others prefer it to be all sliced apples without the compote component. Try both and see what you or your guests prefer. I like the textural components of having a compote that's soft with the sliced apples that aren't so soft combined with the crispy pastry.

For Christmas, I gave each of my daughters (who are now 12, 11 and 8) an individual bundt pan. My 11-year-old used hers early in the year. She's my kitchen muse, and used hers for her own apple tart. It was perfect.

Recipe

Serves 8

Dough:

200 g flour (about 1½ cups)

100 g butter, unsalted, and broken into pieces (about 7 tablespoons)

70 g confectioners' sugar (about 1/3 cup)

5 g salt (about 1 teaspoon)

4 ml milk (about 1 teaspoon)

3 egg yolks

5 ml pure vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)

700 g Golden Delicious apples (about 3 cups)

Compote:

500 g Golden Delicious apples (about 2 cups)

50 g sugar, optional (3½ tablespoons)

50 g butter (3½ tablespoons)

For the dough:
Sift the flour onto the counter. Make a big well. Add the butter, confectioners' sugar, salt, milk, yolks and vanilla extract. Using your pointing finger, start bringing the flour into the liquid ingredients in a circular motion. When you have a paste-like mixture, use a pastry scraper and break the dough up into a crumbly, sandy mixture.

Fraisage: Take a small amount of dough and rub it through the palm of your hand along the work surface. This pulls the butter around the flour and ensures that you don't overwork the dough, keeping it tender. Set this piece of dough aside and repeat with remaining dough.

After you've performed this technique on all the dough, then you can knead all the dough into a ball. You should be able to see a fingerprint in the dough that springs back a little before resting. If the dough seems dry, add fingertips of water. If wet, add touches of flour. Form into a circle, cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Fleurer (sprinkle) the counter with flour. Roll the dough out. Always roll from the middle of the dough and roll evenly. Position the dough in the tart pan or ring. Chill until needed.

For the filling:
Core, quarter and slice apples. In pan, melt butter. Add apples. Then add sugar, to taste (depending on how sweet your apples taste). Cook until soft. Then add pure vanilla extract. Cook (adding water if it dries out too quickly and turn heat to low) until somewhat soft. Pass through a food mill (or use a food processor to purée.

Spread the compote on the bottom of the pastry. Layer the slices of apple on top in a circular pattern. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 350˚F for 30 to 40 minutes, until done.

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I first heard of fraisage from Flo Braker and then from Cook's Illustrated. I love the technique even though it very quickly melts the butter in my tropical heat (it made a lot of good pate brisees). That is a beautiful apple tart too -- very unusual presentation.